This invention relates to an apparatus for feeding slender parts such as bolts to a predetermined place.
As for a mechanism for holding a slender part at the front end of a feed rod and feeding it to a predetermined place, there is one having a chuck mechanism installed on said feed rod. As for a method of guiding slender parts to the front end of the feed rod, there is a known one which uses a guide chute positioned orthogonal to the feed rod to move slender parts along said chute.
When the chuck mechanism described above is used, anything wrong with the chuck mechanism could result in the front end of the slender part inadvertently falling off as it interferes with some member when the feed rod is advanced. This is caused when the dogs of the chuck fail to form pairs with sufficient accuracy.
Further, when a guide chute such as described above is installed, it is necessary to provide a sufficiently large space to install the chute; thus, there are times when it is impossible to use such chute where the available space is limited.
And the most important problem is that a slender part should be held at the front end of the feed rod quickly and reliably. As for the attitude control of parts, it is very difficult to move a slender part, which comes through a feed tube, precisely to the front end of the feed rod without temporarily stopping said part. It becomes sometimes impossible to correctly hold the part at the front end of the feed rod.